The NZSTA biennial conference took place at Te Papa in Wellington on April 22nd and 23rd 2010.  Just under 200 people took part in this inspiring event.

A big thank you to all our presenters!

Opening Speech

The Hon Tariana Turia opened the conference.  Her opening speech can be viewed here and was a fitting opening to the conference.

Grace Gane Memorial Lecture

Jo de Serière presented the Grace Gane Memorial Lecture for 2010 during the conference dinner.  She entertained everyone and there were a lot of laughs throughout and more than a few damp eyes towards the end.  Below you can listen to the lecture and see the slides that Jo used.  This lecture is highly recommended to everyone.  

Photographs

View some Photos from the Conference.  If anyone has any others please send them to nzsta@speechtherapy.org.nz for sharing.

Conference Brochure

Keynote Speakers

The keynote speakers for the conference were Professor Linda Worrall and Professor Thomas Klee.

Professor Linda Worrall will be known to many therapists working in the area of health and adult neurogenic disorders. Linda is a Professor and Co-director of the Communication Disorder Centre at the University of Queensland. She leads a team that has produced exciting, innovative research which focuses predominantly on how to assist people with aphasia in participating in their social networks and communities. She has been a leader in implementing the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health into speech language therapy clinical practice and research. Linda’s research interests include:

• Communication disabilities in ageing
• International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health
• Functional communication in aphasia
• Communication accessibility
•  Acquired brain injury

More information about Linda can be found at:

www.uq.edu.au/uqresearchers/researcher/worrallle.html?uv_category=bio

Professor Thomas Klee is a leader in the field of child language and is a Professor at the University of Canterbury. Tom has a strong focus on the identification and diagnosis of children with language impairment. He has a number of publications addressing specific language impairment (SLI), language delay and disorder, and models of service delivery in schools. Tom's research interests include:

• Improving how children with language difficulties are identified
• Evidence-based assessment and diagnosis of developmental language disorders
• Language assessment of children in naturalistic contexts (language sample analysis)
• Early word learning in typically-developing children and late talkers

More information about Tom can be found at: 

www.cmds.canterbury.ac.nz/people/klee.shtml

Workshops

 The following workshops were well attended: 

• Developing a New Rehabilitation Pathway for People with Aphasia and their Families - Linda Worrall
• Evidence-Based Assessment of Child Language Disorders -  Tom Klee
• Ways with Words– Oral language and the New Zealand Curriculum - Carolyn Grace and Sonia Glogowski
• Running on Empty - Sally Kedge, Peter Huggard and Clare McCann
• Motor Speech Disorders: Time to Refuel -  Megan McAuliffe
• Childhood Apraxia of Speech - Brigid McNeill
• Goal setting for speech-language therapists - Felicity Bright and Tami Howe
• Peer Supervision: How does it work? - Tika Ormond
• Traumatic Brain Injury - Brigette Larkins
• Auditory Processing Disorders - Suzanne Purdy
• Strategic Business Planning - Steve Hockley, Red Hot Business Coaching